Anti-Semitic iPhone app draws ire

Posted August 15, 2012 - 11:19
by
Mike Luttrell

Apple is facing criticism from the Jewish community over an app that it allowed to be published to the App Store.

The most vocal opponent is The Conference of European Rabbis. The group is lobbying Apple to pull an app called "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." It is a digital replication of a well-known anti-semitic forgery of the same name.

"'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' can and should be available for academics to study in its proper context, (but) to disseminate such hateful invective as a mobile app is dangerous and inexcusable," said the president of the conference Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt.

The group is stressing the fact that the app costs 99 cents on the App Store, which somewhat takes it out of the context of historical presentation and more in the market of entertainment.

Apple can of course play the card that it isn't the creator of the content, only the device that is being used to distribute the content.

But of course Apple is well known for its so-called "censorship" when it comes to the App Store - it has disallowed thousands of apps to be playable on the iPhone and iPad because it deemed the content to be unacceptable.